Dom Pannell's Blog

Tongan for a day

So Simon rang me up and asked "do you want to go and see one of the Rugby World Cup matches?"

Well, yes I did, actually. So did Richard (who I've mentioned before). Thus was the process that culminated in last week's rugby-centric shenanigans begun.

Simon promptly bought three tickets for Tonga versus South Africa.

I organised travel from London and accommodation in Lille. Richard sorted out his own travel arrangements from San Sebastian. Simon organised the rugby shirts. And what fine rugby shirts they are, too.

We were two and a half Tongans for one day on 22nd September. Three red shirts surrounded by a sea of green South Africans. I lost count of the number of Saffers who came up to us and told us we were definitely NOT Tongan and the number of French locals who refused to believe that we weren't.

I think you'll agree that the resemblance is remarkable:

As it was a rugby weekend away, there was a fair amount of booze consumed and I'm afraid that only very little of it was fine French wine (we did manage a couple of bottles). We drank far too much of 'the blue drink' that they sell in vast quantities in Cafe Oz in Lille.

Unfortunately, we succumbed to the blue drink and suffered two nights of debauchery. First Simon turned into an Australian:

Later, Richard and I turned into Aussies, too.

(bit hard to see that one)

I should explain that probably because we were doing our best to prevent Cafe Oz from going bust any time soon by giving them our hard earned cash in return for horrid Aussie beer and horrider blue drink, the landlord presented us with t-shirts.

Here's yours truly looking happy with a pint of stout:

and Simon looking even happier a few hours and several blue drinks later:

Actually, Simon was a bit confusing on the nationality front as he decided to support France against Ireland, so had his face painted in the tri-couleur:

Anyway, the day of the big match came and we made our way down to Lens to watch our mighty Tongan brothers take on the Springboks.

They made a bloody good show of it - the sea of green shirts was decidedly unhappy at several points during the game, not least the final minutes when the Sea Eagles were chasing hard.

The Springboks managed to cling on, however, but it was telling that the Tongans were given a standing ovation as they ran a lap of honour round the pitch.

Sea of green shirts, you say? Well, yes, there were thousands of South African supporters at the match. As a sporting gesture, I'll finish with a photo of one who proved to be friendly - this is Richard who was at the match with his buddy Iain.

Sadly, Iain and Richard also succumbed to the blue drink. RIP.

Posted by dompannell at September 30, 2007 8:06 PM